Saturday, July 30, 2016

No pictures from ten years ago- So you get this pic of my Inbred instead!

Ten years ago on this blog there were no pictures posted for the entire week! I have no idea how I attracted readers back then, but I must have, because the thing kept growing here.

Weird.

Anyway, the chit-chat ten years ago was all about the "Nationals" that were to be held up at Nine Mile. That would be the 24hr racing "nationals" and was held up in Wisconsin. That used to be a pretty big shindig but I don't hear anything about it anymore.

Of course, Jeff and Carlos were going up, the two mechanics I worked with at the shop at that time, and they were both sponsored by Cannondale at the time. It was a pretty crazy era at Europa Cycle & Ski then, as the guys would be chattering about training rides, strategies, what worked for nutrition, and gear. One thing that stood out to me looking back is how backward the lighting technology was then compared to now. There are lights these days that are self contained that run longer and are far brighter than the Cat Eye Stadium lights Jeff used to use back then. His lights were bright, for sure, but the battery was a water bottle sized affair, weighed a ton, and ran his lights for maybe a lap or a little longer. That meant he had to have a box of charged water bottle sized batteries just to get through one race. Crazy!

The bikes they rode really, besides wheel size, have not changed nearly as much. Standards changed, yes.....but really. Those things have been done to accommodate incremental changes, different wheel sizes, or are just being done to be different. Lights, on the other hand, are in another universe compared to 2006.